The Devils exceeded the expectations of many last season, pulling themselves into playoff contention. Despite having little chance of moving on against the Tampa Bay Lightning in last year’s first round, the new-identity Devils went from first overall pick to playoff berth, much like the Toronto Maple Leafs of the year prior. They’re a fun team made up of mostly young players, and have a respectable future moving forward. It took until the end of the season to clinch a playoff berth, but along with old rivals in Colorado were one of the season’s biggest surprises, as both were projected to be among the league’s worst teams.

Taylor Hall made a mockery of Edmonton’s decision to ship him out of town, absolutely lighting the league on fire with a 93-point campaign to earn Hart Trophy honours.

As is often the case with bubble teams, depth often comes into question. Behind Hall, only rookie Nico Hischier topped 50 points. Midseason trade bait and former junior teammate of Hall Adam Henrique (who was sent out of town to acquire Sami Vatanen) hit 50 on the full season, but that doesn’t help much when he’s playing out of Anaheim for the latter three-quarters of the year. Just three players hit the 20-goal mark, and it seems like they’re still one or two top-six options away before being any sort of offensive threat. The team ranked 14th in goals for and 17th in goals against, nothing to write home about for either number.

That being said, it is one of the league’s youngest teams. Nine players aged 22 or younger suited up in 2017-18, giving hope that this team has room to grow.

Cory Schneider nearly sunk this team’s playoff hopes, putting up only a .907 save percentage in his 40 games. Thankfully, Keith Kinkaid provided a safety net, carrying the team with a .917 save percentage. Schneider went from December 29th to April 16th without winning a single game, before finally registering one in the playoffs. In that stretch, he failed to allow less than three goals in twelve consecutive starts, giving Kinkaid the starting gig.

An MVP campaign from Taylor Hall won’t be easy to repeat, but it’s not unlikely he’ll be the driving force of the team’s offence again. As he’s set to be entering free agency after this season, it appears that he should be targeting a long-term extension. As the Devils haven’t had an offensive superstar of his calibre in over a generation, it’s likely priority #1.

However, there is one caveat with these Devils: are they experiencing too much success too early? There isn’t much to be inspired about in their pipeline coming up, although 2016 first-round pick Michael McLeod could make the jump to the big club this upcoming year. In a Metro division with lots of OK teams, New Jersey will find themselves in that mix once again, with the team’s front office being forced to task up a plan for not just this upcoming year, but what they’d like to see from the future of this franchise.

After an eventful and at times confusing offseason, the Carolina Hurricanes got off to a scorching start to the 2018-19 season. In their first five games, the Canes went 4-0-1 while outscoring the opposition 22-15 in all situations and 16-9 at 5v5. They were also controlling 62.4% of the unblocked shot attempts at 5v5 during…